Coronary artery disease (e.g., the accumulation of arteriosclerotic plaque within a coronary artery) is the leading cause of premature death in industrialized societies. Modern medical science has developed several procedures for treating coronary artery disease. For example, one method for treating coronary artery disease involves harvesting a saphenous vein or other venous or arterial conduit from elsewhere in the body, or using an artificial conduit, such as one made of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) tubing, and connecting this conduit as a bypass graft from a viable artery or a chamber of the heart to the coronary artery downstream of the blockage or narrowing. While such treatments are well-established medical procedures, they are not without shortcomings. For example, the number of bypass conduits available for harvesting from the patient is limited. Furthermore, these procedures typically cause significant tissue damage to the patient at the harvest site as well as at the patient's chest.
In addition to the bypass procedures mentioned above, several intravascular methods exist that allow surgeons to re-open the diseased artery, such as, angioplasty or atherectomy. Angioplasty involves the intravascular introduction of a balloon-equipped catheter into the diseased blood vessel. Once the catheter is guided to the appropriate location, the balloon is inflated compressing the arteriosclerotic plaque against the wall of the blood vessel. Atherectomy results in the physical desolution of plaque within the diseased blood vessel using a catheter equipped with a removal tool (e.g., a cutting blade or high-speed rotating tip). While these procedures are less-invasive and are effective in treating the diseased blood vessel, there are shortcomings with these procedures. For example, many existing intravascular procedures do not allow the surgeon to bypass the obstruction. Instead, separate catheter devices are typically inserted in the patient to achieve, for example, revascularization of the blood vessel at a location downstream from the obstruction.
Improvements in intravascular procedures used for treating coronary artery disease are, therefore, sought.